A low-density parity-check code is a code specified by a parity-check matrix with the following properties: each column contains a small fixed number j >= 3 of l's and each row contains a small fixed number k > j of l's. The typical minimum distance of these codes increases linearly with block length for a fixed rate and fixed j. When used with maximum likelihood decoding on a sufficiently quiet binary-input symmetric channel, the typical probability of decoding error decreases exponentially with block length for a fixed rate and fixed j. A simple but nonoptimum decoding scheme operating directly from the channel a posteriori probabilities is described. Both the equipment complexity and the data-handling capacity in bits per second of this decoder increase approximately linearly with block length. For j > 3 and a sufficiently low rate, the probability of error using this decoder on a binary symmetric channel is shown to decrease at least exponentially with a root of the block length. Some experimental results show that the actual probability of decoding error is much smaller than this theoretical bound.